The Love Boat (1976), The Love Boat II (1977), and The New Love Boat (1977) were all TV movies produced by ABC as pilots before The Love Boat became a popular television series.
The first two movie pilots, which had Douglas S. Cramer as the producer, were broadcast on ABC television despite being rejected by executives. Aaron Spelling was the producer of the third TV movie that served as the final pilot for the eventual series. The response from that film led to the iconic television series's debut on September 24, 1977.
For three special episodes, The Love Boat embarked on a 14-day voyage to China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This project cost $12 million dollars, and it took months to plan. Producer Doug Cramer was worried about political tensions with a Chinese tennis player Hu Na who defected to the US in 1982.
But that was the least of his worries. Cramer reported that there was tension among the cast members, recalling it as “a miniature World War III.” After guest star Susan Anton scored a large cabin on the exclusive "skydeck," cast member Gavin MacLeod got so angry that he made a cruise line official give him their own sky deck room. Guest star Erin Moran cried until she got a better room.
As the show’s popularity grew, many actors on the show were making a lot of money. At the peak of the show's run-time, actor Bernie Kopell earned $39,500 per episode, which was a lot at that time.
And after the passing of the beloved actor Gavin MacLeod (Captain Merrill Stubing) at the age of 90, his net worth was stated to be about 10 million dollars.
The luxury cruise ship Pacific Princess, which was later renamed MS Princess, continued its operations even after the TV show "Love Boat" was off the air. Unfortunately, the ship was later involved in drug smuggling through the Mediterranean and was detained by Greek police in 1998 after heroin was found on board.
Its ownership changed multiple times and it ran into financial difficulties. In 2010, it proved too old and costly to refurbish and ended up being sold as scrap to a Turkish company for $3 million. During the dismantling process, two workers lost their lives due to inhaling toxic fumes. By 2014, the ship was completely dismantled.
Before getting the part of "Gopher," Fred Grandy worked as a copywriter for Iowa Representative Wiley Mayne. His own eight-year term as a member of the US House of Representatives started in 1987. In 1994, he was unsuccessful in his bid for governor of Iowa.
Grandy then worked as a political analyst for NPR and served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also appeared as Dr. William Ledreau in The Mindy Project.
Lauren Tewes, who played the role of cruise director Julie McCoy on "The Love Boat," was fired from the show due to her increasing drug use during its run. Tewes struggled with cocaine addiction, which had spiraled out of control on set.
Between her drug addiction and missing rehearsals, ABC decided to let her go for her well-being and others. In the end, Patricia Klous took her place. But that didn’t stop her from acting. After sobering up in rehab, she was later able to return on set again. Tewes later admitted that her addiction had changed her lifestyle and caused disagreements with the show's production team.
The accuracy of the original Love Boat's portrayal of life on a cruise ship has been a topic of discussion over the years. The show was set on a cruise ship, and while it portrayed fictional stories, its characters were based on real-life passengers and crew members that Saunders encountered during her time as a cruise director.
Through her work aboard ships, Saunders was able to collect stories and anecdotes that would come together to make up the script for “Love Boat.” Additionally, the ship used for the show's establishing shots, the MS Pacific Princess, was a real ship that was in operation during the show's run. Thus, while the Love Boat may have been a fictionalized version of life on a cruise ship, it was still grounded in reality.
Over 240 hours of the romantic comedy-drama series The Love Boat were produced between 1977 and 1986 on ABC. A lot of actors and various show stars have acted on the set over the run of the show.
Out of the total of 10 seasons and 250 episodes, making it one of the longest-running shows in TV history, Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, and Ted Lange are the only cast members to appear in every episode of the series, including the last three movies made for TV.
The Brady Bunch and Charlie’s Angels weren’t the only ones who made appearances. Love Boat was famous for its cameos, with everyone from Joan Collins to Charo making an appearance.
Famous old Hollywood legends made cameos as the show consistently created fresh characters each week. In fact, the show's popularity was such that guest stars would often ask to be on the show, knowing that it would give their careers a boost.
To partake in the wonders of television, fans paid a large sum of money—roughly $8,550—to board the Love Boat. Even though passengers paid to board the cruise, several activities had to be canceled or rescheduled to make a place for filming.
Additionally, passengers had to spend two nights in a cheap motel during a stop in Tianjin, China, since the Love Boat cast and crew had booked all the nice hotel rooms.
Florence Henderson made an appearance eight times; each time, she played a different role. Her "Brady Bunch" husband, Robert Reed, was also a guest star in one episode, although the plot was unconnected.
Though they didn’t play as the lovely married couple we all know, the two characters cross paths in the corridor and perform a double take in a famous scene.
During the filming, Ted Lange, who starred as bartender Isaac Washington on the show, helped direct the show. After the series ended, he collaborated with skin flick actress Jenna Jameson and Howard Stern's wife, Beth Ostrovsky, to write a "mating" advice column for FHM magazine.
Later in his career, Ted Lange wrote and directed 22 plays and was the recipient of several theatrical honors, including the NAACP Renaissance Man Theatre Award and the AFI Paul Robeson Award.
The theme song was composed by Charles Fox, while Paul Williams wrote the lyrics. They took the sheet piece to Jack Jones to use as the vocals for the song after Mr. Williams' opening night at the Café Carlyle, with the thought of the show only lasting for six weeks. Williams said, "We thought, 'Who's going to watch a series about a cruise ship?'"
When the full version of the song was released as a single in 1980, it scored in the Top 40 on Billboard's adult contemporary chart. Fast forward to today, still known to be an iconic, beloved piece from a hit show.
Charlie's Angels on ABC crossed over with Love Boat in 1979. In a two-part episode titled "Love Boat Angels,” the angels boarded the Pacific Princess while traveling to the Virgin Islands in order to recover paintings that had been stolen.
Although Love Boat's characters weren't the major focus of the episodes, Captain Stubing, Julie McCoy, Isaac, and "Doc" Bricker did appear.
Love Boat ran for a total of 10 seasons and 250 episodes, making it one of the longest-running shows in TV history. And that does not include the several spin-offs it spawned. The most recent spin-off is "The Real Love Boat," which was produced by CBS and its Australian sister network, Network 10, which premiered in the United States and Australia in 2021.
The show is based on a group of real-life singles embarking on a sea voyage where they must overcome chemistry and compatibility challenges, ending with one fortunate pair winning a lump sum of money and a luxurious vacation on the Princess Cruise.
